All Right, Then, I'll Go To Hell - A Goodbye To The Commentariat

When this site was making the transition from being a four post a week, 200 page view a day personal blog to a thorough Spurs site that has hundreds of thousands of readers a month, Bryan was its second largest contributor. If he had not been willing to put in a ton of work, this would still be a small personal blog. I owe him more than anyone — more than any other contributor or SB Nation itself — for this site’s current readership.

Bryan gave me the option of posting or not posting this goodbye, in its entirety or in an edited form. Though he has the permissions to post anything himself, he asked me to read this before posting. It made me feel uneasy to read a lot of the things he wrote, but I decided to present them, unedited. Mostly because he is right.

I’ll have another post later about what’s being done to combat the vitriol around here, but right here, I would like to apologize to Bryan and the respectful members of this community. Though this post is not the least bit critical of me, it is a reflection of my failures as the manager of this site. We used to be fun, light-hearted and inclusive. That is no longer the case.

Bryan is leaving mostly because of law school, but I can’t help but feel he would have made the time to keep writing here if I had done a better job.

Thank you for your time Bryan. Best of luck in law school and your career.

As a somewhat new reader, I’d like to say thanks for your hard work. I never had an EPL team I rooted for specifically before this year and a big part of why I chose Tottenham was the community here and the quantity and quality of the writing provided. Thanks for everything and good luck with everything. You’ll be missed

I’ve appreciated and enjoyed all the work you’ve done as this community has just exploded. I feel that I have not contributed to the negativity here, but I’m sure I have in some way and I apologize for that. Good luck with law school.

I feel responsible to some of the things that were touched on in this post. If I need to tone down in how I comment, just let me know. I discovered this site through commenting on the Every Day Should Be Saturday site, which has a different way of doing things. Not better, not worse, just different. I hope to add to the community and will take all advice as a way to improve my performance on this site.

This makes me sad because I liked to read the things you wrote but best of luck in law school.

It’s just a coincidence that I became the “official troll” and then you quit right? Right!? :c(

Best of luck with law school – I rarely comment here, but as a fellow SBN writer, I know how much the culture means to us as writers.

Stick around, though. Site’s better with you adding to the dialogue.

Huge bummer to see you go, man. You were a monster contributor and the posts/comments will be missed. I hope this doesn’t mean the end of WDR since you edit it and that maybe you can still appear on the show because there are plenty of people here who still value your contributions. Best wishes.

But seriously, thanks for all your many contributions to the site. We all appreciated it.

I’ve only really been reading this blog/site since the summer, but it has soon become one of my favourites, due largely to the writing staff’s commitment to writing interesting and thought provoking pieces concerning the team I have supported for the last 21 years.

Bryan, you were a large part of this, and although I am new here, I can’t help but feel gutted by your departure.

Good luck with Law School, and whatever path you choose to tread.

COYS

But seriously, its been excellent. I wish you would stay and I hope we get things sorted so that you do come back. Best of luck with law school sir

You and Kevin were and are people I’m genuinely not afraid to say I looked up to when it came to wondering how I could improve my own style and level of incisiveness. This site has just lost a quality commentator.

Well there goes one of the better writers on the football side of SBNation.

Sad day.

Looks like in light of some poor tackles, clubs will receive a DVD showing how to tackle. It sounds like we might need something like that. A sort of reset button on acceptable behavior.

A little disappointed in how off topic this thread got. I was hoping people could keep it to tributes to someone who put in quite a bit of work for us.

I understand the feeling of something that was previously fun becoming a burden (I had to stop my own sports blog once I started law school). When it’s no longer enjoyable but rather starts to feel like work, that’s a good time to pull away.

I am going to miss your contributions, especially those tactics posts that literally made me a better Spurs fan. You should know that you’ve made a real difference to many of us.

As for the culture here… there are times I’ve started to type a comment and then deleted it just because I’m afraid of the flaming I’ll receive for posting my opinion (from both the OGs and the newbies, frankly). This isn’t quite the same thing as caps lock douchebaggery, but fostering a culture where one is tolerated can lead to the other. I don’t know what the solution is though, honestly, because the same culture that generates fun memes and the like can lead to more cringeworthy stuff. And I also have at least once memory burned into my head when in responding to someone in an argument here I said something that, while not vile, was a touch personal, and I regret it. I think we all have to be more careful about not contributing to an uncomfortable atmosphere. And I really do direct that at everyone, as frankly some of the regulars here can be as rude as the randos.

Anyway, those discussions can continue elsewhere, but Bryan, kick ass in law school and beyond and keep making Spurs fans look good wherever you go.

Lots of commentators have put it really well so I don’t have anything really brilliant to add. Just wanted to say how much I’ve appreciated your contributions and that I definitely understand all your reasons for leaving. I’m actually in my last week of a social work job right now and I’m leaving mostly because I have to be honest with myself about burn out. I really respect your decision.

As far as the commenting goes, I hope we can all agree that this is a really valuable community for Spurs fans and that we can all be motivated to take this issue really seriously. Let’s start being intentional about righting the ship here, so to speak, and getting back to the kind of community we can pride ourselves on being.

I can relate with you a bit. I found it really difficult to keep contributing to Defending Big D when I started at college little more than a year ago, even though I loved it. I’m not going through law school, however, so I can’t imagine your workload. I admit I haven’t been a strong part of the Commentariat, even though I make multiple trips to CFC every day and love the site, so it makes it even more shocking hearing the attitude here has helped drive you away. I agree with the post above, however. DBD had the same issues when we suddenly had an influx of new readers. Things change, but with strong management and loyal readers things can return to normal. And with Kevin and the guys running things, I have full faith the ship will be righted.

Best of luck to you, Bryan. COYS

And… M-I-Z

CFC now hiring: anti-american argumentative malcontents apply today! haha kidding…ashlock’s view was a welcome change of pace and i suspect at some point he will contribute again in a different capacity

Your contributions are obviously a big part of why this site is what it is today. I won’t harp on this too long, because many other commentators have already said many of the things I would say and said them better. Speaking for myself, your posts about tactics and formations always gave me a valuable insight into something I am woefully ignorant about.

You were always a good sport about stuff like the Stachelock jokes and our anti american jokes. Obviously gutted that you’re leaving and gutted that our community played a role in you leaving. Hopefully the mood will pick up in the future and it’ll be a warmer place for all of us. Vaya con dios, mustacheo.

I don’t get the ancillary reasoning of commenters being part of it though. I do definitely get the work or life getting in the way, as I’m in the same boat at my blog. The commenters here aren’t a tenth as bad as what I deal with in Lakers, Celtics and Jazz fans. Just comes with the territory. I don’t fault you for it bothering you at all though, trolling may be the dumbest thing to ever come to the internet though. I have never understood why anyone would think it’s funny. It’s just living in your mom’s basement style dumb.

Anyway, good luck in law school. If the fact that half of SBNation are lawyers has anything to do with it, once your done you’ll probably be bored enough to come back ;-)

I have a few friends in Law School now, so the fact you were able to keep this up as long as you did is a testament to your work ethic. The tactical analysis and other posts were great for everyone who visited the site, fan or foe. I wish you good luck in the future, although I’m sure you won’t need it.

As far as what has gone on around here lately, I think there has been a few distinct problems.

I think the most obvious flashpoint for problems has been how the commentariat handles frustrating and stressful games. If we’re blown out by City 5-1, we’re pissed, but there’s a certain amount of resignation to the inevitable that keeps things under control. The end of the 3-2 City game leaves most of us apoplectic, which is fine, but most of us, myself included, let our anger get the better of us and posted some stupid, stupid things. THAT is something we all have to watch. Its a matter of keeping perspective and Spurs title challenge may have gotten many of us carried away. At the end of the day, its just a game and while I think its ok to express frustration with a certain degree of vulgarity and humor, its not ok to do so in a way that either insults someone or makes people uncomfortable.

Second, and what I think is the community’s biggest problem, is that we can be a bit insular sometimes. A while back, a liverpool fan posted something only slightly passive aggressive here and a ton of people jumped down his throat. Even if he was trolling, the best way to handle this is either to ignore it or, if we can’t help outselves, to be clever, but to do so without being rude. However, this isn’t limited to outsiders. Sometimes, even a regular commenter will voice a less than popular opinion here and alot of times, the rest of us will jump down their throat as well. And a level of animosity develops among regulars that makes it uncomfortable for all of us. I think we all need to remember our message to PAOK fans and chill, bros (and sis …es? the plural of sis). I believe that the personal animus that develops from this is what has created alot of the bad mood we’ve been dealing with.

Third, I think we are guilty of being a bit too locker roomy here. Yes, a vast majority of us are dudes, but this site is for everyone, so our references have to reflect that. Honestly, I think Sabrina’s participation in our community has made us (or at least me) a little more aware of this.

Finally, as a commenter, I do have a bit of confusion with the reaction from the moderators sometimes. I fully understand the importance and need of extensive moderation for a healthy online community (any other WEFers from back in the day here?), but sometimes I feel that someone says something stupid, whether its racist/homophobic/sexist, a personal attack, or something reactionary about the team, and its allowed to infect the whole mood of this site.

Obviously, I’m not moderating the whole site, so my view of things is a bit different, I feel like yesterday was a good example of how this looked from my perspective. I think what started as a fun, weird game thread obviously got nervy as a draw approached its conclusion and when Bale blew a shot he makes 7/10 times, someone commented “Fuck Bale.” or something. From then on, everything took a nasty tone. We all bear a bit of responsibility for the tone going downhill, but I really do think that the site focused on what was a single comment way, way too much. The rest of the response to that shot was perfectly acceptable “How can you miss that?!” type stuff (with varying degrees of vulgarity to be fair). I’m not sure what I’m suggesting here. I appreciate the policing and I appreciate that shitty stuff isn’t allowed to slide, but maybe we shouldn’t get so down on ourselves when someone posts something stupid?

Anyway, we have a great community here and I really am grateful that everyone at the site is so conscious of preserving it. So let’s all just do what our patron saint Pav would do – relax. But let’s not do it in the middle of the pitch. I don’t want to be sent to Russia.

Thanks for all the hard work you have done here. I think it’s more the pressures of law school that has you taking a sabbatical from the site, rather than the nature and direction of the site. I hope you continue to visit the site and comment on the build up and results of matches.
As far as my fellow commentors, I think the harsh and offensive comments are from us (I include myself) fellow new comers to the site. It’s probably an attempt to fit in with the “stereotypical” futbol fan. Sort of like the ultra-ism/ hooliganism that “stupid” Americans are lead to believe that all futbol fans in Europe are, we try to be as vicious as possible to compensate for our “neau boys” status.
As far as the “Buck Fale” comments that set you over the edge, I think it’s a case of Spurs fans not remember the bad ole days. For the last two, maybe three years, Spurs have been a successful club. We, now, maybe are taking winning for granted. It wasn’t that long ago, we were nothing more than a mid table club and fodder for that other club in North London that “Wandered in from Woolwick” . With time, as as the site becomes more noticed, and popular, perceptive will come and a level of maturity right along with it. Think of all this as growing pains.
Anyways, COYS and Cheers.

hearing that you were in law school and thinking “you not analyzing/summarizing” enough in school? Good luck to you, hopefully now you can cut back on all your commitments and focus on setting yourself up for a great career. I enjoyed all of your articles, you brought an analytical perspective we’ll miss here. Again, good luck.

I want to thank you for your guidance, intelligence & good humor. It won’t be the same without you. Give ’em hell at law school.

Sad to hear you’re leaving CFC, as your articles have always been very informative and much appreciated. I only hope that you won’t stay away from the commentariat too long. You will be missed.

I have been following the site and listening to WDR for awhile, but have only just started commenting. You have been a great contributor to the site and Wheeler Dealer Radio. I hope you stick around in some capacity, whether it’s commenting, contributing to WDR or both. Either way, good luck to you in law school and thank you for your great contribution to this excellent site.

and also sad to see this contributor leave. i too feel that racism, homophobia, trolling, and the like are just a childish waste of time. I like how CFC is run and it is why i joined sbnation. to the administrators of CFC past and present, THANK YOU!

It’s a testament that this blog, who’s commentary I find witty, welcoming, open and enjoyable, exists at all, in no small thanks to you. Hopefully we can be more diligent and proactive at keeping the comments in that spirit. I must say that I do find the commentariat incredibly enjoyable, often catching up well after the game itself. What’s said here is miles better than almost any other blog I read.

thanks, bryan. i don’t comment here a lot, but i’ve enjoyed reading your work in particular.

Best of luck at law school and in your other future endeavors, and I hope to still see you around in a commenting capacity, even if that is unlikely.

I remember when I first found this site and just been blown away at how good it is ( still is ). Your posts were an integral part of that, all I can say is Thank You! Cool runnings man ;)

Thanks for all your contributions, Bryan. I’ve been playing soccer all my life, and your analytics articles have made me a smarter player and fan.